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French Foreign Legion troops marching, August 1914Vintage Video: French Foreign Legion Troops Marching, 1914
 Updated - Saturday, 6 December, 2003

With war against Germany declared France rapidly mobilised her people for war, both in anticipation for implementing France's own war plan - Plan XVII, intended to recapture Alsace and Lorraine from Germany - and in defence against Germany's own war strategy, the Schlieffen Plan.

Overseeing the French Army in all of this was Joseph Joffre, the somewhat autocratic Commander-in-Chief.

Click here to view footage of French Foreign Legion troops on the march in August 1914 (Windows Media, 10 seconds, 1,311KB).

"Suicide Ditch" was a term used by British soldiers to refer to the front-line trench.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-07, SafeSurf Rated